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Overview

The function of a business’s general counsel (GC) has evolved greatly over the years. Changes in the role have led to an increasingly complex daily to-do list. GCs are faced with a myriad of responsibilities, from data privacy and security to regulations and enforcement, litigation, and risk and crisis management. Increasingly GCs are required to tackle issues outside their initial job description. They are called upon to scan the horizon for potential threats—whether legal, political, technological or social—and to connect the dots between different teams and drive strategic development to deliver success for the business as a whole.

For its 15th year, The Economist Events' General Counsel conference sets out to find compelling solutions to meet the changing expectations and mounting demands faced by in-house legal departments. The conference will address issues including:

Dealing with the impact of Brexit upon your business

Preparing for artificial intelligence and increasing levels of automation

Scanning the horizon—how to predict the unpredictable

Staying on top of the challenges of cyber-security and data protection

“Wonderful opportunity to network, talk at a high level about the challenges faced by our legal functions whilst not being distracted by operational industry issues”Managing Counsel, Roche

“Ahead of the curve thinking – everything you need to worry about in one neat package”General Counsel EMEA, Adidas Group

“Very useful overview of hot topics for in-house counsel”BHP Billiton

“Excellent programme”Associate general counsel, EMEA, FTI Consulting

Speakers

Andrew Palmer

Executive and digital editor, The Economist

Andrew Palmer

Executive and digital editor, The Economist

Andrew Palmer is the business affairs editor at The Economist, where he has responsibility for the newspaper’s business, finance and science coverage. Among other roles he was previously the newspaper’s finance editor and Americas editor. He has authored special reports on international banking, property and financial innovation. Before joining The Economist in 2007 he held a variety of editorial and management positions at The Economist Intelligence Unit. Before joining The Economist Group, he monitored media coverage of elections in Eastern Europe on behalf of the European Union. He has degrees from Oxford University and the London School of Economics.

Pete Swabey

Pete Swabey

Pete is the editorial director at The Economist Intelligence Unit's thought leadership division in EMEA; he is also global lead for the tech sector. He specialises in technology and has managed research projects on topics including digital transformation, the hyperconnected economy, the future of work and the evolution of marketing. He has presented this research at a range of conferences and has moderated discussions at a number of The Economist Group's own events.

Sandie Okoro

Senior vice-president and group general counsel, World Bank

Sandie Okoro

Senior vice-president and group general counsel, World Bank

Sandie Okoro, a British barrister and solicitor, was appointed senior vice-president and group general counsel for the World Bank Group in February 2017, joining from HSBC where she was general counsel of Global Asset Management. Sandie has received numerous accolades and lifetime achievement awards in the United Kingdom for her career and volunteer efforts on diversity, women’s empowerment and leadership. Sandie is passionate about gender equality, and diversity and inclusion.

Sarah Jones

Group general counsel, BBC

Sarah Jones

Group general counsel, BBC

Sarah is responsible for all the legal departments at the BBC as well as implementing the BBC’s legal strategy and providing legal advice to senior management. She was named one of the Hot 100 lawyers in the UK in The Lawyer Hot 100 in 2013, and was one of the top ranked general counsels in the "GC Powerlist" in the Legal Business Journal in 2016. A staunch supporter of equality, diversity and inclusion, she was a judge for the 2017 UK Diversity Legal Awards.

John Ferguson

Director of Global Forecasting, The Economist Intelligence Unit

John Ferguson

Director of Global Forecasting, The Economist Intelligence Unit

As the Director of Global Forecasting at The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), John is responsible for providing leadership and oversight for the EIU's global economic analysis and forecasting. He is a leading voice on the global economy, geopolitics and the future of globalisation. John has more than 15 years' experience in policy and economic analysis. He joined the EIU in 2010 and, most recently, he was a Senior Economist in the EIU's Public Policy, Economics and Politics practice. This involved research into many of the major factors impacting the global economy: climate change; shifting patterns of geopolitics; foreign direct investment flows; global employment patterns; artificial intelligence; cyber-crime; and trade protectionism. He has also covered global trade for the EIU's Global Forecasting team for the past 5 years.

Ritva Sotamaa

Chief legal officer, Unilever

Ritva Sotamaa

Chief legal officer, Unilever

Ritva Sotamaa was appointed chief legal officer of Unilever in February 2013 and assumed the role of group secretary in January 2018. As a member of Unilever’s leadership executive Ritva is responsible for the company’s legal, intellectual property and business integrity functions. Prior to joining Unilever, Ritva spent most of her career within the healthcare industry. She has worked extended periods of time in global corporations in Finland, USA, Germany and United Kingdom covering a broad range of legal matters, managing multinational teams and operating as part of business executive teams.

Dervish Tayyip

Assistant general counsel, Microsoft

Dervish Tayyip

Assistant general counsel, Microsoft

Dervish Tayyip is assistant general counsel based in the UK supporting Microsoft’s operations in Europe. Before joining Microsoft, he practised law at the law firm Adlers (later DLA Solicitors) and subsequently became partner at Reid Minty (later McGrigors LLP). Previous roles at Microsoft have included head of UK legal and director of cloud offerings for Europe, Middle East and Africa. Dervish is also past chair of the in-house group of the UK Society for Computers and Law. He writes and speaks regularly on topics relating to IT and the law.

Maaike de Bie

General counsel, Royal Mail

Maaike de Bie

General counsel, Royal Mail

Maaike de Bie is the general counsel of Royal Mail. She obtained her legal degrees in the Netherlands and Canada and is qualified to practise as a solicitor in both New York and the UK. Maaike started her career in private practice in New York moving to London 6 years later where she has held a number of senior in-house legal roles at the EBRD, GE and EY. In addition to her professional career, Maaike trained as a coach in 2005. Maaike uses these skills both professionally and personally as well as pro-bono through the Aspire Foundation Mentoring Scheme.

Garrick Hileman

Head of research, Blockchain.com and co-founder, Mosaic.io

Garrick Hileman

Head of research, Blockchain.com and co-founder, Mosaic.io

Garrick is one of the world's most-cited researchers of cryptocurrencies and distributed ledger technologies. He received his PhD from the London School of Economics and is a researcher at the University of Cambridge, where he teaches classes on cryptocurrencies and distributed leader technologies. He is the author of the "2017 Global Cryptocurrency Benchmarking Study" (University of Cambridge) and the follow-on "2017 Global Blockchain Benchmarking Study" (University of Cambridge). He also created and published the CoinDesk State of Bitcoin and State of Blockchain reports from 2013-2016. His prior work experience includes equity research and corporate ﬁnance for a San Francisco investment bank.

Penny Duquenoy

Associate professor, Middlesex University

Penny Duquenoy

Associate professor, Middlesex University

Penny Duquenoy is associate professor of ethics and IT at Middlesex University, London in the department of computer science, with a research focus on embedding ethics in the design and development of ICT. She has led and participated in EU and UK co-funded projects focusing on ethics, some partnering with police (VALCRI; SAMi2; ISIS (UK project) focus child protection) and participated as a member of ethics/advisory boards for EU and UK projects over the last 5 years. Penny undertakes ethics review of EU projects and proposals for research agencies in Europe, Canada and US on ethics, social impact and privacy.

Siobhán Moriarty

General counsel, Diageo

Siobhán Moriarty

General counsel, Diageo

Siobhán Moriarty is general counsel of Diageo. She joined Diageo’s legal team in 1997, where she has held a variety of roles, including corporate m&a counsel, regional counsel Ireland and general counsel Europe, before taking on responsibility for leadership of the global legal team as general counsel in 2013. She is a member of the executive committee of Diageo and is the joint executive sponsor of Diageo’s diversity and inclusion agenda, which has set itself the goal of achieving 35% female leadership in Diageo by 2020 and 40% by 2025. As part of the FT innovative lawyers series, Siobhán was recognised in the 2017 Financial Times list of top 20 global GCs. She was also named in the inaugural 2017 FT and HERoes top 50 Female Champions of Women in Business list.

Kate Cheetham

Group general counsel, Lloyds Banking Group

Kate Cheetham

Group general counsel, Lloyds Banking Group

Kate is the group general counsel of Lloyds Banking Group. In this role Kate is responsible for advising the board and senior executives on legal matters and sits on the executive committee. Kate leads the group’s legal team and has responsibility for managing the group’s external legal relationships. Kate is co-chair of Breakthrough, the LBG’s women’s network which has a membership of c.15,000 people. She is trustee of Lloyds Bank Foundation for England and Wales, sponsor of “Legal in the Community”, the legal function’s Responsible Business programme and a supporter of the charity “Suited & Booted”, which helps men who are out of work to find employment. Kate joined the group legal team at Lloyds TSB Group in 2005. Prior to being appointed group general counsel, she held a number of senior positions including deputy group general counsel and general counsel for Group Legal.

Matt Wilson

Associate general counsel (EMEA), Uber

Matt Wilson

Associate general counsel (EMEA), Uber

Matt joined Uber in July 2015 and now leads the legal team in EMEA. Matt started his career at Baker & McKenzie, followed by stint working for Telefonica and the Arsenal Football Club. At Telefonica, Matt headed the legal team for Global Digital Ventures - working on venture capital, M&A deals and commercial partnerships as well as the development of new products and their implementation globally - spending time all over Europe as well as in China, Latin America and the US.

Sabine Chalmers

General counsel, BT

Sabine Chalmers

General counsel, BT

Sabine Chalmers is the general counsel of BT Group, one of the world’s largest communications companies listed on the FTSE with headquarters in London. Prior to BT, Sabine was the chief legal and corporate affairs officer and secretary to the board of directors of Anheuser-Busch InBev. In addition to her more than a decade at Anheuser-Busch InBev, she served in a number of leadership positions, including general counsel of the Latin American and U.S. businesses at Diageo. She also worked in private practice at the law firm of Lovell White Durrant and was a lecturer at University College, London. Sabine serves on numerous boards, including those of Coty, Inc., one of the worlds largest consumer beauty companies; the Royal National Theatre London; and is a former chairman of the Board of the Association of Corporate Counsel, the largest not-for-profit professional association serving the business interests of in-house attorneys around the world with more than 34,000 members in 85 countries.

Ryan Rubin

Partner, forensic and integrity services, EY

Ryan Rubin

Partner, forensic and integrity services, EY

Ryan is a cyber partner in the EY UK Forensic & Integrity Services with a focus on digital forensics and cyber investigations.
Ryan brings more than 20 years of breadth and depth of experience supervising and delivering event driven, business focused risk, security consulting and IT assurance services to corporate clients helping to manage cyber security risk from the boardroom to the network.
Ryan has worked for global FTSE 100 and Fortune 500 clients across multiple industries providing a range of IT risk and compliance related consultancy services, forensic investigations, e-discovery, risk management, strategy & architecture, technical due diligence, IT audit support, data privacy, penetration testing, application and database security, technology implementation.

Lien Ceulemans

Vice president global privacy and associate general counsel, Salesforce

Lien Ceulemans

Vice president global privacy and associate general counsel, Salesforce

Lien Ceulemans leads Salesforce's global privacy team located in AMER, EMEA and APAC. She is responsible for all privacy and data protection matters and is spearheading a number of high profile projects related to Salesforce's privacy compliance, including the General Data Protection Regulation. Lien is also leading Salesforce's European Women's Network. Lien joined Salesforce in December 2011 after working at the Belgian law firm, Stibbe, and Fenwick and West in San Francisco and completing her LLM in Law, Science and Technology at Stanford Law School.

Martin Cook

General counsel, Funding Circle UK

Martin Cook

General counsel, Funding Circle UK

Martin Cook is general counsel at Funding Circle UK, a leading small business loans platform in the UK, US, Germany and the Netherlands. Set up in 2010, investors have lent £5 billion to over 50,000 businesses across the UK, US and Europe. Martin is responsible for legal and regulatory affairs, and also engages with external stakeholders including across government, with regulators and within the industry. Prior to Funding Circle, Martin focused on corporate, commercial and IP work in the technology, telecoms and financial services sectors at the law firms Slaughter and May (in London, Hong Kong and Brussels) and Travers Smith, as well as in-house roles focused on innovation and FinTech. Martin is a founding member of the FinTech Delivery Panel, an industry body appointed by HM Treasury and working with Tech Nation on driving the growth of the UK's FinTech sector.

Felicity Burch

Director of innovation and digital, Confederation of British Industry

Felicity Burch

Director of innovation and digital, Confederation of British Industry

Felicity Burch leads the Confederation of British Industry's policy work to create the right regulatory and policy conditions to enable businesses to come up with new ideas, invest in research and development (R&D) and adopt new technologies. Prior to taking her current role, she spent two years as the head of innovation and digital, where she led the CBI’s successful campaign for the government to commit to a target for R&D expenditure, as well as agenda-setting work on technology adoption.

Felicity’s background is in economic policy, focused on business growth. Before the CBI, she was senior economist at EEF, the manufacturers' organisation. In this role she led the development of their innovation policy and industrial strategy work and delivered a breadth of economic and industrial trends research. She has also worked on Experian's Economic Policy team, with a focus on regional growth.

Mark Maurice-Jones

General counsel, Nestlé UK and Ireland

Mark Maurice-Jones

General counsel, Nestlé UK and Ireland

Mark Maurice-Jones is the general counsel and compliance officer at Nestlé UK & Ireland leading a team of 15 dedicated to shaping the company’s agenda through proactive business partnership and driving a culture of integrity where people “do the right thing”. As part of his responsibilities he is a member of the company’s steering group advising on Brexit. Before his current role he worked for 15 years with Kimberly-Clark in the EMEA region where he held a number of roles including chief counsel Europe, Middle East and Africa and established a legal function in Russia and the Ukraine. Mark started his legal career as a competition lawyer with international law firms in London and Brussels.

Emily Orton

Chief marketing officer, Darktrace

Emily Orton

Chief marketing officer, Darktrace

Emily is responsible for global marketing and communications, a role she has held since Darktrace’s foundation in 2013. She is also a commentator on cyber security issues and has appeared in leading media outlets including BBC News, Sky News and Channel 4. Emily has ten years’ experience in technology marketing.

Sharon Blackman

Director, Office of the General Counsel, Citi

Sharon Blackman

Director, Office of the General Counsel, Citi

Sharon is a director in Citi’s General Counsel’s Office Markets and Securities Services division.
An English law qualified Barrister and NY Attorney, Sharon has worked for Citi since 2004. She heads the EMEA Foreign Exchange and Local Markets (FXLM) legal team and has previously had responsibility for covering FICC & Equity Derivatives, Strategic investments and Index Algorithmic Products. She has represented Citi at a variety of industry level committees, most recently as the Citi legal representative on the Bank of England Joint Foreign Exchange legal subcommittee.
Sharon sits on Citi’s EMEA Legal Diversity Committee and represents EMEA on Citi’s Global Legal Diversity Council. As chair of the Citi EMEA Pro Bono Committee (of which she has been an active member for over 10 years) she was delighted to accept the award for In-House Pro Bono Legal Team of the year, Trust Law Awards 2015.
Personally recognised as a high achieving and influential lawyer as part of a special feature in the EY sponsored Powerful Media 2016 Powerlist, Sharon was subsequently shortlisted as a 2017 finalist in each of the Women in Banking Finance Awards and the Black British Business Awards Champion for Women and Financial Services Leader categories respectively.

Emily Foges

Chief executive, Luminance

Emily Foges

Chief executive, Luminance

Emily Foges has been scaling up technology-led businesses for over 20 years, working in M&A as a consultant and in-house with some of the UK’s fastest growing businesses. She specialised in building business cases and then leading integration, when companies come together to become greater than the sum of their parts. The complexity of combining customers, products, platforms, teams and operations was the ideal training ground for turning a technology start-up into a global organisation. Emily became CEO in 2016 when Luminance was a small team of technologists and lawyers. She took the product to market and led the growth of the business, which doubled in size every quarter last year. Luminance now has 118 customers in 36 countries.

Jake McQuitty

Partner, Eversheds Sutherland

Jake McQuitty

Partner, Eversheds Sutherland

Jake McQuitty is a partner in the financial services disputes and investigations group at Eversheds Sutherland specialising in corporate investigations and regulatory enforcement. Mr McQuitty advises clients on a wide range of risks arising from breaches of regulatory and criminal laws, as well as assisting clients with internal investigations, remediation and response to enforcement into potential breaches of rules and regulations Mr McQuitty also advises on the application and interpretation of financial services regulations, particularly MAR, the senior managers regime and conduct rules. Recently, he has acted for several global banks and international firms on a range of regulatory investigations and enforcement matters, including enquiries into the misuse of electronic trading algorithms and platforms, the fall-out from a major cyber breach of customer data, and the mis-sale of foreign exchange products.

Mr McQuitty was formerly the head of investigations and enforcement for a global bank. He has written extensively on the subject of corporate investigations and regulatory enforcement, including articles for corporate counsel, general counsel and compliance monitor magazines, and contributed chapters to several publications including the International Comparative Legal Guide to Corporate Investigations.

Adam Eastell

General counsel, Eigen Technologies

Adam Eastell

General counsel, Eigen Technologies

Adam Eastell is Eigen’s general counsel and commercial lead for the legal sector. He oversees Eigen’s engagement with the legal market and is an expert on how advanced technology can be applied at scale in both law firms and corporates. Prior to joining Eigen, Adam was a partner at Slaughter and May. During his 14 years at Slaughter and May, he specialised in commercial transactions and worked on a variety of high-profile mergers and acquisitions and equity capital markets deals. Adam has also worked as an independent consultant for technology businesses in both the legal and medical sectors.

Eric Benedict

Managing director, AlixPartners

Eric Benedict

Managing director, AlixPartners

Eric is an experienced turnaround and performance improvement professional with both advisory and line management experience. Clients benefit from Eric's work with the financial sponsors, boards of directors, and managements of their companies because he can quickly diagnose opportunities to improve performance and then work hands-on to rapidly improve operating and financial results. Eric has been involved extensively across such business sectors as telco, technology, and business services. His clients include public limited companies and leading private-equity firms, and he has also chaired a number of private-equity-backed technology businesses. Prior to joining AlixPartners, Eric was with Alvarez & Marsal, Ernst & Young, and RSM Rhodes.

James Smethurst

James Smethurst

Agenda

Registration and welcome reception

9:00 AM

Chair’s opening remarks

Andrew Palmer

Executive and digital editor, The Economist

Andrew Palmer

Executive and digital editor, The Economist

Andrew Palmer is the business affairs editor at The Economist, where he has responsibility for the newspaper’s business, finance and science coverage. Among other roles he was previously the newspaper’s finance editor and Americas editor. He has authored special reports on international banking, property and financial innovation. Before joining The Economist in 2007 he held a variety of editorial and management positions at The Economist Intelligence Unit. Before joining The Economist Group, he monitored media coverage of elections in Eastern Europe on behalf of the European Union. He has degrees from Oxford University and the London School of Economics.

9:10 AM

Global economy briefing from The Economist Intelligence Unit

Brexit negotiations stubbornly persist, President Trump continues to stir
up controversy on a global scale, it almost seems like very little has
changed from the outside. How have the current and past year’s
events affected global and European economy in 2018 and what is to
come in 2019? How is the in-house legal system affected? The
Economist Intelligence Unit presents the latest forecast on how
businesses are responding to shifting dynamics.

John Ferguson

Director of Global Forecasting, The Economist Intelligence Unit

John Ferguson

Director of Global Forecasting, The Economist Intelligence Unit

As the Director of Global Forecasting at The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), John is responsible for providing leadership and oversight for the EIU's global economic analysis and forecasting. He is a leading voice on the global economy, geopolitics and the future of globalisation. John has more than 15 years' experience in policy and economic analysis. He joined the EIU in 2010 and, most recently, he was a Senior Economist in the EIU's Public Policy, Economics and Politics practice. This involved research into many of the major factors impacting the global economy: climate change; shifting patterns of geopolitics; foreign direct investment flows; global employment patterns; artificial intelligence; cyber-crime; and trade protectionism. He has also covered global trade for the EIU's Global Forecasting team for the past 5 years.

9:30 AM

Brexit: What does the future hold for your business?

The clock is ticking towards March 29th 2019, when Britain is due to
leave the European Union. In late 2017 the UK’s Brexit minister, David
Davis, revealed the government’s lack of preparation when he
admitted that it had conducted no impact assessments of Brexit for
various industries. With a lack of direction from the government, it falls
upon the in-house law team to demonstrate leadership and direct the
course of business, preparing economic and social strategies for what
might come. Efficient communication is critical, but what else needs to
be considered when navigating this unpredictable landscape? What
are the key criteria for building and managing your legal team’s
resources to meet your business’s Brexit needs over the next decade?

Maaike de Bie

General counsel, Royal Mail

Maaike de Bie

General counsel, Royal Mail

Maaike de Bie is the general counsel of Royal Mail. She obtained her legal degrees in the Netherlands and Canada and is qualified to practise as a solicitor in both New York and the UK. Maaike started her career in private practice in New York moving to London 6 years later where she has held a number of senior in-house legal roles at the EBRD, GE and EY. In addition to her professional career, Maaike trained as a coach in 2005. Maaike uses these skills both professionally and personally as well as pro-bono through the Aspire Foundation Mentoring Scheme.

Mark Maurice-Jones

General counsel, Nestlé UK and Ireland

Mark Maurice-Jones

General counsel, Nestlé UK and Ireland

Mark Maurice-Jones is the general counsel and compliance officer at Nestlé UK & Ireland leading a team of 15 dedicated to shaping the company’s agenda through proactive business partnership and driving a culture of integrity where people “do the right thing”. As part of his responsibilities he is a member of the company’s steering group advising on Brexit. Before his current role he worked for 15 years with Kimberly-Clark in the EMEA region where he held a number of roles including chief counsel Europe, Middle East and Africa and established a legal function in Russia and the Ukraine. Mark started his legal career as a competition lawyer with international law firms in London and Brussels.

James Smethurst

Partner, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer

James Smethurst

Partner, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer

Andrew Palmer

Executive and digital editor, The Economist

Andrew Palmer

Executive and digital editor, The Economist

Andrew Palmer is the business affairs editor at The Economist, where he has responsibility for the newspaper’s business, finance and science coverage. Among other roles he was previously the newspaper’s finance editor and Americas editor. He has authored special reports on international banking, property and financial innovation. Before joining The Economist in 2007 he held a variety of editorial and management positions at The Economist Intelligence Unit. Before joining The Economist Group, he monitored media coverage of elections in Eastern Europe on behalf of the European Union. He has degrees from Oxford University and the London School of Economics.

10:05 AM

AI: The next chapter

Artificial intelligence, analytics and automation were among the
buzzwords of 2017. The concepts have been increasingly labelled as
game-changers for the legal profession. Looking beyond the grand
proclamations about their impact upon the daily work of an in-house
legal team, what key steps will ensure that your team is ready,
professionally and personally, to adopt and adapt to AI and
automation? With the market saturated with products, how can you
choose the best for the team? What steps need to be implemented
now to ensure a smooth transfer to future technology? And which of
the legal team’s functions are next in the sights of Silicon Valley?

Dervish Tayyip

Assistant general counsel, Microsoft

Dervish Tayyip

Assistant general counsel, Microsoft

Dervish Tayyip is assistant general counsel based in the UK supporting Microsoft’s operations in Europe. Before joining Microsoft, he practised law at the law firm Adlers (later DLA Solicitors) and subsequently became partner at Reid Minty (later McGrigors LLP). Previous roles at Microsoft have included head of UK legal and director of cloud offerings for Europe, Middle East and Africa. Dervish is also past chair of the in-house group of the UK Society for Computers and Law. He writes and speaks regularly on topics relating to IT and the law.

Sharon Blackman

Director, Office of the General Counsel, Citi

Sharon Blackman

Director, Office of the General Counsel, Citi

Sharon is a director in Citi’s General Counsel’s Office Markets and Securities Services division.
An English law qualified Barrister and NY Attorney, Sharon has worked for Citi since 2004. She heads the EMEA Foreign Exchange and Local Markets (FXLM) legal team and has previously had responsibility for covering FICC & Equity Derivatives, Strategic investments and Index Algorithmic Products. She has represented Citi at a variety of industry level committees, most recently as the Citi legal representative on the Bank of England Joint Foreign Exchange legal subcommittee.
Sharon sits on Citi’s EMEA Legal Diversity Committee and represents EMEA on Citi’s Global Legal Diversity Council. As chair of the Citi EMEA Pro Bono Committee (of which she has been an active member for over 10 years) she was delighted to accept the award for In-House Pro Bono Legal Team of the year, Trust Law Awards 2015.
Personally recognised as a high achieving and influential lawyer as part of a special feature in the EY sponsored Powerful Media 2016 Powerlist, Sharon was subsequently shortlisted as a 2017 finalist in each of the Women in Banking Finance Awards and the Black British Business Awards Champion for Women and Financial Services Leader categories respectively.

Emily Foges

Chief executive, Luminance

Emily Foges

Chief executive, Luminance

Emily Foges has been scaling up technology-led businesses for over 20 years, working in M&A as a consultant and in-house with some of the UK’s fastest growing businesses. She specialised in building business cases and then leading integration, when companies come together to become greater than the sum of their parts. The complexity of combining customers, products, platforms, teams and operations was the ideal training ground for turning a technology start-up into a global organisation. Emily became CEO in 2016 when Luminance was a small team of technologists and lawyers. She took the product to market and led the growth of the business, which doubled in size every quarter last year. Luminance now has 118 customers in 36 countries.

Emily Orton

Chief marketing officer, Darktrace

Emily Orton

Chief marketing officer, Darktrace

Emily is responsible for global marketing and communications, a role she has held since Darktrace’s foundation in 2013. She is also a commentator on cyber security issues and has appeared in leading media outlets including BBC News, Sky News and Channel 4. Emily has ten years’ experience in technology marketing.

Andrew Palmer

Executive and digital editor, The Economist

Andrew Palmer

Executive and digital editor, The Economist

Andrew Palmer is the business affairs editor at The Economist, where he has responsibility for the newspaper’s business, finance and science coverage. Among other roles he was previously the newspaper’s finance editor and Americas editor. He has authored special reports on international banking, property and financial innovation. Before joining The Economist in 2007 he held a variety of editorial and management positions at The Economist Intelligence Unit. Before joining The Economist Group, he monitored media coverage of elections in Eastern Europe on behalf of the European Union. He has degrees from Oxford University and the London School of Economics.

10:45 AM

Blockchain 101

Blockchain represents a major shift in information management, and in-house legal teams need to be aware of the potential implications for their business. How can blockchain technology save time, money and potential conflict whilst improving accuracy and safety with smarT contracts? Can a contract really be reduced to programming
protocols? Or will it prove impossible to implement the technology in
Europe due to privacy laws and the “right to be forgotten”? What
does a GC needs to know when stepping into new blockchain territory?

Garrick Hileman

Head of research, Blockchain.com and co-founder, Mosaic.io

Garrick Hileman

Head of research, Blockchain.com and co-founder, Mosaic.io

Garrick is one of the world's most-cited researchers of cryptocurrencies and distributed ledger technologies. He received his PhD from the London School of Economics and is a researcher at the University of Cambridge, where he teaches classes on cryptocurrencies and distributed leader technologies. He is the author of the "2017 Global Cryptocurrency Benchmarking Study" (University of Cambridge) and the follow-on "2017 Global Blockchain Benchmarking Study" (University of Cambridge). He also created and published the CoinDesk State of Bitcoin and State of Blockchain reports from 2013-2016. His prior work experience includes equity research and corporate ﬁnance for a San Francisco investment bank.

Andrew Palmer

Executive and digital editor, The Economist

Andrew Palmer

Executive and digital editor, The Economist

Andrew Palmer is the business affairs editor at The Economist, where he has responsibility for the newspaper’s business, finance and science coverage. Among other roles he was previously the newspaper’s finance editor and Americas editor. He has authored special reports on international banking, property and financial innovation. Before joining The Economist in 2007 he held a variety of editorial and management positions at The Economist Intelligence Unit. Before joining The Economist Group, he monitored media coverage of elections in Eastern Europe on behalf of the European Union. He has degrees from Oxford University and the London School of Economics.

11:00 AM

Networking break

11:45 AM

The key to a good team: More than simply law

Broad legal knowledge is assumed, but what is the skills base of a fully
competent legal team? Which key strengths must a general counsel
have? A calm temperament? Tech expertise? Sound judgment? How
can you use proficiency from other areas of the business to strengthen
the abilities of your team? When a team lacks the required
capabilities, what is a successful strategy for upskilling in an already
very busy role? Is it time to apply a more holistic perspective to
employees, such as incorporating mindfulness, mental well-being or
physical exercise?

Ritva Sotamaa

Chief legal officer, Unilever

Ritva Sotamaa

Chief legal officer, Unilever

Ritva Sotamaa was appointed chief legal officer of Unilever in February 2013 and assumed the role of group secretary in January 2018. As a member of Unilever’s leadership executive Ritva is responsible for the company’s legal, intellectual property and business integrity functions. Prior to joining Unilever, Ritva spent most of her career within the healthcare industry. She has worked extended periods of time in global corporations in Finland, USA, Germany and United Kingdom covering a broad range of legal matters, managing multinational teams and operating as part of business executive teams.

Siobhán Moriarty

General counsel, Diageo

Siobhán Moriarty

General counsel, Diageo

Siobhán Moriarty is general counsel of Diageo. She joined Diageo’s legal team in 1997, where she has held a variety of roles, including corporate m&a counsel, regional counsel Ireland and general counsel Europe, before taking on responsibility for leadership of the global legal team as general counsel in 2013. She is a member of the executive committee of Diageo and is the joint executive sponsor of Diageo’s diversity and inclusion agenda, which has set itself the goal of achieving 35% female leadership in Diageo by 2020 and 40% by 2025. As part of the FT innovative lawyers series, Siobhán was recognised in the 2017 Financial Times list of top 20 global GCs. She was also named in the inaugural 2017 FT and HERoes top 50 Female Champions of Women in Business list.

Matt Wilson

Associate general counsel (EMEA), Uber

Matt Wilson

Associate general counsel (EMEA), Uber

Matt joined Uber in July 2015 and now leads the legal team in EMEA. Matt started his career at Baker & McKenzie, followed by stint working for Telefonica and the Arsenal Football Club. At Telefonica, Matt headed the legal team for Global Digital Ventures - working on venture capital, M&A deals and commercial partnerships as well as the development of new products and their implementation globally - spending time all over Europe as well as in China, Latin America and the US.

Martin Cook

General counsel, Funding Circle UK

Martin Cook

General counsel, Funding Circle UK

Martin Cook is general counsel at Funding Circle UK, a leading small business loans platform in the UK, US, Germany and the Netherlands. Set up in 2010, investors have lent £5 billion to over 50,000 businesses across the UK, US and Europe. Martin is responsible for legal and regulatory affairs, and also engages with external stakeholders including across government, with regulators and within the industry. Prior to Funding Circle, Martin focused on corporate, commercial and IP work in the technology, telecoms and financial services sectors at the law firms Slaughter and May (in London, Hong Kong and Brussels) and Travers Smith, as well as in-house roles focused on innovation and FinTech. Martin is a founding member of the FinTech Delivery Panel, an industry body appointed by HM Treasury and working with Tech Nation on driving the growth of the UK's FinTech sector.

Pete Swabey

Pete Swabey

Pete is the editorial director at The Economist Intelligence Unit's thought leadership division in EMEA; he is also global lead for the tech sector. He specialises in technology and has managed research projects on topics including digital transformation, the hyperconnected economy, the future of work and the evolution of marketing. He has presented this research at a range of conferences and has moderated discussions at a number of The Economist Group's own events.

12:20 PM

Checking in on GDPR

The General Data Protection Regulation took effect in May this year.
Does your legal team have questions about how well the transition has
worked? Have there been any unforeseen consequences? Is there
concern that employees aren’t taking the penalties for
noncompliance seriously?

Lien Ceulemans

Vice president global privacy and associate general counsel, Salesforce

Lien Ceulemans

Vice president global privacy and associate general counsel, Salesforce

Lien Ceulemans leads Salesforce's global privacy team located in AMER, EMEA and APAC. She is responsible for all privacy and data protection matters and is spearheading a number of high profile projects related to Salesforce's privacy compliance, including the General Data Protection Regulation. Lien is also leading Salesforce's European Women's Network. Lien joined Salesforce in December 2011 after working at the Belgian law firm, Stibbe, and Fenwick and West in San Francisco and completing her LLM in Law, Science and Technology at Stanford Law School.

Felicity Burch

Director of innovation and digital, Confederation of British Industry

Felicity Burch

Director of innovation and digital, Confederation of British Industry

Felicity Burch leads the Confederation of British Industry's policy work to create the right regulatory and policy conditions to enable businesses to come up with new ideas, invest in research and development (R&D) and adopt new technologies. Prior to taking her current role, she spent two years as the head of innovation and digital, where she led the CBI’s successful campaign for the government to commit to a target for R&D expenditure, as well as agenda-setting work on technology adoption.

Felicity’s background is in economic policy, focused on business growth. Before the CBI, she was senior economist at EEF, the manufacturers' organisation. In this role she led the development of their innovation policy and industrial strategy work and delivered a breadth of economic and industrial trends research. She has also worked on Experian's Economic Policy team, with a focus on regional growth.

Pete Swabey

Pete Swabey

Pete is the editorial director at The Economist Intelligence Unit's thought leadership division in EMEA; he is also global lead for the tech sector. He specialises in technology and has managed research projects on topics including digital transformation, the hyperconnected economy, the future of work and the evolution of marketing. He has presented this research at a range of conferences and has moderated discussions at a number of The Economist Group's own events.

12:40 PM

Cyber-attack: The GC’s epic battle

Keep abreast of cyber-security continues to be critical for an in-house
legal team. Cyber-attacks have probably kept you awake in 2018, but
will 2019 be any different? The frequency and ferocity of attacks on
data privacy continues to increase, but what new protective
technologies and strategies can keep the risk at bay? With “threat
intelligence” could we finally begin to see an end to data breaches?
How have changing regulations around data security and litigation
affected the process for cyber-security lawsuits? Is the 72-hour data-breach notification rule under the GDPR too short, and will it lead toforced disclosures?

Ryan Rubin

Partner, forensic and integrity services, EY

Ryan Rubin

Partner, forensic and integrity services, EY

Ryan is a cyber partner in the EY UK Forensic & Integrity Services with a focus on digital forensics and cyber investigations.
Ryan brings more than 20 years of breadth and depth of experience supervising and delivering event driven, business focused risk, security consulting and IT assurance services to corporate clients helping to manage cyber security risk from the boardroom to the network.
Ryan has worked for global FTSE 100 and Fortune 500 clients across multiple industries providing a range of IT risk and compliance related consultancy services, forensic investigations, e-discovery, risk management, strategy & architecture, technical due diligence, IT audit support, data privacy, penetration testing, application and database security, technology implementation.

Kate Cheetham

Group general counsel, Lloyds Banking Group

Kate Cheetham

Group general counsel, Lloyds Banking Group

Kate is the group general counsel of Lloyds Banking Group. In this role Kate is responsible for advising the board and senior executives on legal matters and sits on the executive committee. Kate leads the group’s legal team and has responsibility for managing the group’s external legal relationships. Kate is co-chair of Breakthrough, the LBG’s women’s network which has a membership of c.15,000 people. She is trustee of Lloyds Bank Foundation for England and Wales, sponsor of “Legal in the Community”, the legal function’s Responsible Business programme and a supporter of the charity “Suited & Booted”, which helps men who are out of work to find employment. Kate joined the group legal team at Lloyds TSB Group in 2005. Prior to being appointed group general counsel, she held a number of senior positions including deputy group general counsel and general counsel for Group Legal.

Jake McQuitty

Partner, Eversheds Sutherland

Jake McQuitty

Partner, Eversheds Sutherland

Jake McQuitty is a partner in the financial services disputes and investigations group at Eversheds Sutherland specialising in corporate investigations and regulatory enforcement. Mr McQuitty advises clients on a wide range of risks arising from breaches of regulatory and criminal laws, as well as assisting clients with internal investigations, remediation and response to enforcement into potential breaches of rules and regulations Mr McQuitty also advises on the application and interpretation of financial services regulations, particularly MAR, the senior managers regime and conduct rules. Recently, he has acted for several global banks and international firms on a range of regulatory investigations and enforcement matters, including enquiries into the misuse of electronic trading algorithms and platforms, the fall-out from a major cyber breach of customer data, and the mis-sale of foreign exchange products.

Mr McQuitty was formerly the head of investigations and enforcement for a global bank. He has written extensively on the subject of corporate investigations and regulatory enforcement, including articles for corporate counsel, general counsel and compliance monitor magazines, and contributed chapters to several publications including the International Comparative Legal Guide to Corporate Investigations.

Pete Swabey

Pete Swabey

Pete is the editorial director at The Economist Intelligence Unit's thought leadership division in EMEA; he is also global lead for the tech sector. He specialises in technology and has managed research projects on topics including digital transformation, the hyperconnected economy, the future of work and the evolution of marketing. He has presented this research at a range of conferences and has moderated discussions at a number of The Economist Group's own events.

1:15 PM

Networking lunch

2:30 PM

VIDEO

2:40 PM

The future of business, technology and ethics

Robo-colleagues, autonomous vehicles, algorithms, drones, human
genome sequencing... Technology is the defining factor of today’s
society, but what does this mean for ethical codes? Technology can’t
understand human values and emotions, so it lies in our hands to
maintain a balance between ethics and innovation. What will it mean
to be human in the next ten years? Can our society keep pace with
the pressures of new technology while ensuring that the boundaries
between right and wrong do not become blurred?

Penny Duquenoy

Associate professor, Middlesex University

Penny Duquenoy

Associate professor, Middlesex University

Penny Duquenoy is associate professor of ethics and IT at Middlesex University, London in the department of computer science, with a research focus on embedding ethics in the design and development of ICT. She has led and participated in EU and UK co-funded projects focusing on ethics, some partnering with police (VALCRI; SAMi2; ISIS (UK project) focus child protection) and participated as a member of ethics/advisory boards for EU and UK projects over the last 5 years. Penny undertakes ethics review of EU projects and proposals for research agencies in Europe, Canada and US on ethics, social impact and privacy.

Adam Eastell

General counsel, Eigen Technologies

Adam Eastell

General counsel, Eigen Technologies

Adam Eastell is Eigen’s general counsel and commercial lead for the legal sector. He oversees Eigen’s engagement with the legal market and is an expert on how advanced technology can be applied at scale in both law firms and corporates. Prior to joining Eigen, Adam was a partner at Slaughter and May. During his 14 years at Slaughter and May, he specialised in commercial transactions and worked on a variety of high-profile mergers and acquisitions and equity capital markets deals. Adam has also worked as an independent consultant for technology businesses in both the legal and medical sectors.

Sara Catley

In-house legal director, Thomson Reuters legal UK & Ireland

Sara Catley

In-house legal director, Thomson Reuters legal UK & Ireland

Andrew Palmer

Executive and digital editor, The Economist

Andrew Palmer

Executive and digital editor, The Economist

Andrew Palmer is the business affairs editor at The Economist, where he has responsibility for the newspaper’s business, finance and science coverage. Among other roles he was previously the newspaper’s finance editor and Americas editor. He has authored special reports on international banking, property and financial innovation. Before joining The Economist in 2007 he held a variety of editorial and management positions at The Economist Intelligence Unit. Before joining The Economist Group, he monitored media coverage of elections in Eastern Europe on behalf of the European Union. He has degrees from Oxford University and the London School of Economics.

3:10 PM

Checking in on what success looks like

Measurement and performance evaluation continue to be an
ongoing challenge for GCs. What are the best techniques to achieve
company directors’ expectations? How can you measure and
evaluate your successes?

Eric Benedict

Managing director, AlixPartners

Eric Benedict

Managing director, AlixPartners

Eric is an experienced turnaround and performance improvement professional with both advisory and line management experience. Clients benefit from Eric's work with the financial sponsors, boards of directors, and managements of their companies because he can quickly diagnose opportunities to improve performance and then work hands-on to rapidly improve operating and financial results. Eric has been involved extensively across such business sectors as telco, technology, and business services. His clients include public limited companies and leading private-equity firms, and he has also chaired a number of private-equity-backed technology businesses. Prior to joining AlixPartners, Eric was with Alvarez & Marsal, Ernst & Young, and RSM Rhodes.

Sabine Chalmers

General counsel, BT

Sabine Chalmers

General counsel, BT

Sabine Chalmers is the general counsel of BT Group, one of the world’s largest communications companies listed on the FTSE with headquarters in London. Prior to BT, Sabine was the chief legal and corporate affairs officer and secretary to the board of directors of Anheuser-Busch InBev. In addition to her more than a decade at Anheuser-Busch InBev, she served in a number of leadership positions, including general counsel of the Latin American and U.S. businesses at Diageo. She also worked in private practice at the law firm of Lovell White Durrant and was a lecturer at University College, London. Sabine serves on numerous boards, including those of Coty, Inc., one of the worlds largest consumer beauty companies; the Royal National Theatre London; and is a former chairman of the Board of the Association of Corporate Counsel, the largest not-for-profit professional association serving the business interests of in-house attorneys around the world with more than 34,000 members in 85 countries.

Pete Swabey

Pete Swabey

Pete is the editorial director at The Economist Intelligence Unit's thought leadership division in EMEA; he is also global lead for the tech sector. He specialises in technology and has managed research projects on topics including digital transformation, the hyperconnected economy, the future of work and the evolution of marketing. He has presented this research at a range of conferences and has moderated discussions at a number of The Economist Group's own events.

3:30 PM

Time’s up

According to a recent online survey of 6,000 British adults conducted
for the BBC, 40% of women and 18% of men have experienced some
form of sexual harassment in the workplace. These figures, plus a wave
of high-profile sexual-harassment cases, serve as a potent reminder to
companies that no matter how well-intentioned their policies may be,
the problem persists. Sexual harassment has a significant impact not
just on the employee but on the employer as well. How can the GC
ensure that progressive policies and protective measures are
formulated and applied? Are training programmes to protect
employee safety working? How can you ensure that employees are
fully aware of what is appropriate workplace conduct?

Sandie Okoro

Senior vice-president and group general counsel, World Bank

Sandie Okoro

Senior vice-president and group general counsel, World Bank

Sandie Okoro, a British barrister and solicitor, was appointed senior vice-president and group general counsel for the World Bank Group in February 2017, joining from HSBC where she was general counsel of Global Asset Management. Sandie has received numerous accolades and lifetime achievement awards in the United Kingdom for her career and volunteer efforts on diversity, women’s empowerment and leadership. Sandie is passionate about gender equality, and diversity and inclusion.

Sarah Jones

Group general counsel, BBC

Sarah Jones

Group general counsel, BBC

Sarah is responsible for all the legal departments at the BBC as well as implementing the BBC’s legal strategy and providing legal advice to senior management. She was named one of the Hot 100 lawyers in the UK in The Lawyer Hot 100 in 2013, and was one of the top ranked general counsels in the "GC Powerlist" in the Legal Business Journal in 2016. A staunch supporter of equality, diversity and inclusion, she was a judge for the 2017 UK Diversity Legal Awards.

Andrew Palmer

Executive and digital editor, The Economist

Andrew Palmer

Executive and digital editor, The Economist

Andrew Palmer is the business affairs editor at The Economist, where he has responsibility for the newspaper’s business, finance and science coverage. Among other roles he was previously the newspaper’s finance editor and Americas editor. He has authored special reports on international banking, property and financial innovation. Before joining The Economist in 2007 he held a variety of editorial and management positions at The Economist Intelligence Unit. Before joining The Economist Group, he monitored media coverage of elections in Eastern Europe on behalf of the European Union. He has degrees from Oxford University and the London School of Economics.

4:05 PM

Closing remarks

Andrew Palmer

Executive and digital editor, The Economist

Andrew Palmer

Executive and digital editor, The Economist

Andrew Palmer is the business affairs editor at The Economist, where he has responsibility for the newspaper’s business, finance and science coverage. Among other roles he was previously the newspaper’s finance editor and Americas editor. He has authored special reports on international banking, property and financial innovation. Before joining The Economist in 2007 he held a variety of editorial and management positions at The Economist Intelligence Unit. Before joining The Economist Group, he monitored media coverage of elections in Eastern Europe on behalf of the European Union. He has degrees from Oxford University and the London School of Economics.

4:15 PM

NETWORKING RECEPTION

5:15 PM

Close of conference

Venue

Jumeirah

Sponsors

Platinum sponsor

AlixPartners

In today’s fast paced global market timing is everything. You want to protect, grow or transform your business. To meet these challenges we offer clients small teams of highly qualified experts with profound sector and operational insight. Our clients include corporate boards and management, law firms, investment banks, investors and others who appreciate the candor, dedication, and transformative expertise of our teams. We will ensure insight drives action at that exact moment that is critical for success. When it really matters.

Silver sponsor

Thomson Reuters

Thomson Reuters Legal delivers best-of-class solutions to help legal professionals practise the law, manage their organisation and grow their business for more information visit: legal-solutions.co.uk.

App sponsor

EY

Dealing with complex issues of fraud, regulatory compliance and business
disputes can detract from efforts to succeed. Better management of fraud
risk and compliance exposure is a critical business priority — no matter the
size or industry sector. With approximately 4,500 forensic professionals
around the world, we will assemble the right multidisciplinary and culturally aligned team to work with you and your legal advisors. We work to give you the benefit of our broad sector experience, our deep subject-matter knowledge and the latest insights from our work worldwide.

Sponsored by

Sponsored by

MINDCREST

Mindcrest Inc. is a leading legal services company that specializes in Contracts Management, Compliance, Legal Analytics, and Litigation & Investigations.

We offer innovative technology-driven results to many of the world’s largest organizations. By combining legal expertise with strong project management, Mindcrest delivers high-quality, cost-effective solutions to clients across multiple industries.

Mindcrest has delivery centers in Chicago, New York, London, and Pune, India.

Exhibitor sponsor

Eversheds Sutherland

As a global top 15 law practice, Eversheds Sutherland provides legal advice and solutions to a global client base ranging from small and mid-sized businesses to the largest multinationals.

We provide the full range of legal services, including corporate and M&A; dispute resolution and litigation; energy and infrastructure; insurance and financial services; human capital and labor law; intellectual property; real estate and construction; and tax.

We shape our advice to the unique circumstances and challenges of each project, and ensure the right people are in the right places to offer insight and certainty – from the day-to-day to the most complex, multijurisdictional matters.

What unites us is our commitment to service excellence through a solution-oriented approach. We know our clients’ businesses, the industries and markets they operate in, and we know that great relationships yield the best outcomes.

Accredited by

Accredited by

CPD Certification Service

Established in 1996, The CPD Certification Service is the independent CPD accreditation centre working across all sectors, disciplines and further learning applications. War on Cancer 2018 is eligible for 5.5 CPD points which The Economist Events can assist with claiming post-event.

Supporting associations

Supporting organisation

Winmark

Winmark gives business leaders the knowledge and connections to achieve greater impact.Our Professional member networks enable C-suite executives to learn from their peers and engage in the discussions that are transforming their business environment. Our widely acclaimed management research provides leaders with intelligence and perspective, and our education academies update, develop and empower executives across industries and functions.

Supporting organisation

Global Legal Group (GLG)

Established in 2002, Global Legal Group (GLG) is an independent, London-based media company specialising in the legal market. Through print and digital channels we provide legal, regulatory and policy information to senior executives, general counsel, law firms and government agencies.All GLG publications are available to view in print and online:International Comparative Legal Guides – www.iclg.comCommercial Dispute Resolution News – www.cdr-news.comGlobal Legal Insights – www.globallegalinsights.comAfrican Law & Business – www.africanlawbusiness.com

Speaking opportunities

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